Alpha Rev at the W Hotel in Austin, TX on Tues., March 14, 2013. Left to right - drummer Clint Simmons, lead singer Casey McPherson, keyboards Jeff Bryant and guitar Zak Loy

AUSTIN — Even amid the overcrowded bustle of the South by Southwest Music Festival, there is a respite of quiet reflection.

I am sitting on the outside deck of Mozart’s Coffee Roasters with the tranquil Lake Austin to my left and the aroma of java beans cooking behind me. In front of me sits Casey McPherson, lead singer and songwriter of Austin's Alpha Rev. He sips coffee and contemplates soul-searching.

The conversation involves Bloom, Alpha Rev’s third full-length album and the band’s debut for Dallas’ Kirtland Records. Bloom is the group’s cathartic, nakedly passionate opus examining relationships from all possible heart-tugging angles.

“I had been married for two years and learning about love and relationships,” McPherson, 34, said. “A lot of this music was about peeling those onions.”

McPherson, the one constant in Alpha Rev, treats his band as a collective. Musicians come and go, but never completely disappear. The current players are drummer Clint Simmons, keyboardist Jeff Bryant and guitarist Zak Loy. They took the stage during the final night of SXSW for a Bloom-heavy gig at Dirty Dog Bar.

Bloom is a raw record, one that leaves a few edges unpolished and reveals a weightier, darker side to the band’s emotionally cleansing brand of alt-rock. It is informed by U2 and the Cure, Jeff Buckley and Radiohead. It is McPherson’s journey created for universal consumption.

“I was home-schooled my whole life, so my ability to communicate with people is really bad,” he said. “A lot of this music is about searching through that.”

He wrote “When You Gonna Run,” a standout on the disc, about that point in a relationship when the veneer chips off and reality sets in. The anthem-like “Sing Loud,” the CD’s first single, examines a failed relationship. The opener “Lexington” is based on actual Civil War love letters from soldiers to wives and children. The brooding “Lonely Man” depicts losing those we love because work consumed us.

“This record is a steppingstone and a moving forward to who I possibly am as an artist,” he said.

It is certainly a much deeper effort than 2010’s New Morning, Alpha Rev’s sole album for major-label powerhouse Hollywood Records. The story behind the making of New Morning is a typical music-industry tale. The 11-song album cost a whopping $175,000 to craft, McPherson says, and the label all but ignored it. In fact, Alpha Rev was dropped from the label’s roster a mere six months after New Morning was released.

It was a debilitating blow for McPherson, who was completely new to the big machine politics. He knew the label wanted a pop-driven album that it could push to radio. He tried to deliver by giving the “poppiest songs I could be OK with.”

And yet, McPherson tells me, the producer still went in after the recording sessions were done and electronically tweaked McPherson’s voice so he would sound younger.

“I hated the music business at that point,” he said. “It was too much compromise for me. Part of me was an artist and part of me was a businessman. I felt like it was just necessary” to fill both roles.

So the recording of Bloom began completely grass-roots with a PledgeMusic campaign that paid for three songs. Eventually the music and the band made their way to Kirtland through “multiple connections,” McPherson said. The interest was mutual and instant.

“I don’t want to be with a major label. I am not that guy. I always felt like my clothes were too tight.”

Not anymore. Bloom is the beginning, much like the name Alpha Rev connotes the start of a revolution. McPherson isn’t afraid of the jagged edges. He’s relishing the opportunity to pare the sonic layers for the world to see.

“My goal as an artist with this record is to take greater artistic risks and connect with honesty and precision, to take greater emotional risks and be more exposed.”